Why do you do what you do?

Is what you do primarily to make money? If so, you are a mere cog in the wheel because a billion other people are doing the same thing. When you do what you do merely to make a profit, you are putting yourself in competition with a billion people.

Or, is what you do value-based? Are you doing something you know will improve the lives of others?

If so, then you just reduced your competition from a billion to zero.

When we pursue a dream, we are essentially competing only with only ourselves. In other words, pursuing a dream eliminates the competition to zero. No one can compete against someone with a dream.

A dream is unique. It is personal. It separates you from the competition. So, go out and pursue a dream. Dreams set you apart from everyone else.

“There is more than one way to skin a cat.” Seba Smith, The Money Diggers (1840).

How do you go about pursuing success when you are stuck in a job?

It’s a conundrum. Most have to work at a job in order to provide for their families. The need to provide for your family makes it difficult to pursue those things you are passionate about.

But there’s more than one way to skin cat – The Side Hustle.

According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics (2012), the average person watches 2.8 hours of TV every day. There are also other distractions: Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, etc.

The point is, we all waste a portion of our free time doing unproductive things.

The Side Hustle involves doing something on the side, outside of your work hours that could one day create a stream of income.

It involves finding something you are passionate about and redirecting your behavior, reallocating your resources, to devote to that passion.

The Side Hustle:

• Minimizes Risk – While maintaining your existing employment, you are able to build a side business that you hope one day will generate a stream of income that will replace your employment.
• Hedges Your Bets – Being employed involves risk. The economy could turn, like it did in 2008/2009, and you could find yourself out of work. The Side Hustle becomes insurance against that happening.
• Allows You to Fail and Make Mistakes – Failing and making mistakes costs you time and money. Quitting a job to start a business means those mistakes and failures could result in bankruptcy, jeopardizing your livelihood and putting your family at great risk. The Side Hustle minimizes the impact of those mistakes and failures because you still have your current employment providing a stream of income.
• Allows You to Learn and Grow – The Side Hustle buys you time to develop the knowledge and skills you need to realize success.  

Successful individuals devote time to building their knowledge and skills.

They lay the foundation for success every day. They improve their skills and knowledge, every day. They Dream-Set and then they create a plan for success.

You goals are the action plans you create in order to make your dream a reality.

Create a vision of your ideal future life and then pursue the goals that will make that vision a reality.

You cannot learn to be confident. You can’t manifest confidence through your thoughts. Affirmations that are intended to boost confidence will not change a thing. You simply can’t pretend your way to confidence.

Why? Because confidence is earned by taking risks and taking action.

The risk in taking action is that you will face hurdles and obstacles, you will make mistakes and you may experience failure.

But only those who overcome the inherent risks of taking action and, thus, encounter hurdles, obstacles, mistakes and failure, grow. They learn what to do and what not to do. They figure it out.

Eventually, all of that figuring it out, all of that learning what to do and what not to do, leads to success.

And success builds confidence. Those who take risks, take action and succeed become confident because confidence is earned, not learned.

Everyone has superpowers. Superpowers are the strengths each one of us has that makes us unique. Let me repeat, everyone has superpowers.

You superpowers set you apart from everyone else.

Superpowers come from two places:

1. Genetics
2. Environment

Genetics

Everyone has unique DNA, unique genes. We are given those unique genes at birth. Given. We don’t have to work for them, buy them or build them. They are literally given to us free of charge, without any cost or effort.

Some people are just naturally gifted with genes that make them superior physically. LeBron James was born bigger and stronger than most others. I remember watching LeBron James play basketball as a senior in High School. It was a nationally televised broadcast because so many people were in awe of his superior basketball abilities. I remember watching the game with my son. We looked at each other and I said to my son, “he looks like a 25 year old man playing basketball with a bunch of 14 year olds.” LeBron was just born bigger and stronger and physically more athletic than the kids his own age.

Others are born with superior intelligence. They are just able to grasp things quicker and easier than others. Bill Gates was born smarter than others. Bill Clinton has a 156 IQ.

Some are born with creativity genes. They are born more creative than others. Steve Jobs saw things differently than others. He was obsessed with design details at a very early age and that gave birth to the Macintosh, iPod and iPhone. Nicola Tesla was born creative. He was born an inventor. He created the 60 cycle rotating magnetic field motor (alternating current motor), Tesla Coil, RADAR, ARC Lamp, radio, XRAY, Solar Engine and 40 other patented inventions that are still being studied to this day.

Still others are born with a humor gene, entertainment gene, mathematical gene, economics gene, the writer gene, the curiosity gene, the music gene, etc.

If you are alive, you were born with some genetic superpower.

Environment

The environment you were raised in gives you superpowers. Some people were raised by parents who encouraged their children to explore, to be curious, to experiment, etc. Some were raised in environments where they were taught certain habits that gave them an edge and lead to success. Others were raised in environments that fostered learning, creativity, invention, risk taking, etc. And still others were raised in environments where they came into contact with individuals who inspired them, motivated them, encouraged them.

If you are alive, you were born in an environment that gave you some superpower.

Your job is to discover exactly what your superpowers are. Some you were born with, but most likely, most of your superpowers come from your upbringing, your environment. Find them and then devote your life to strengthening them.

Don’t waste your time focusing on what you are not good at. Focus all of your energy on your genetic and environmental strengths. When you find your superpower, focus all of your energy and time to developing it.

Only when you devote your life to developing and nurturing your superpowers will you truly become happy and successful.

Everyone has an ideology. Ideology is indoctrinated thinking that you have accepted and that has become habitual.

• Teachers have an ideology.
• Union members have an ideology.
• Physicians have an ideology.
• Democrats and Republicans have their ideologies.
• Tesla employees have their ideology.
• Employees of Apple, FaceBook and Google have their specific ideologies.
• Rich people and poor people have their ideologies.

You have an ideology, whether you realize it or not.

And I have one question for you:

Is your ideology working for you?

A good ideology is one that helps you become successful in life. It indoctrinates you with thinking that leads to success. It inspires you to learn and to grow. It infuses you with motivation and a desire to achieve.

Most are not successful. And if you’re like most, your ideology is holding you back in life. It’s acting like an anchor, dragging you down and preventing you from realizing success.

Whatever career you have, you must adopt the ideology that only those at the top of your industry possess. That is why it is so important to associate with those who are successful. Their ideology infects you like a virus. And you want to become infected.

Find those at the top in your industry. Ask them to breakfast, lunch or for a few drinks after work. Start building a relationship with them. Learn their ideology. Then, adopt it.

Pursuing success is a lot like swinging from one trapeze bar to the next.

Each trapeze bar represents a goal. Success is just the process of moving from one goal to the next.

After you achieve one goal, you have to move on to the next goal. You must continuously swing from one goal to the next, as if it were a trapeze bar.

The success process requires that you relentlessly focus on moving from one bar to the next.

Successful people do everything humanly possible to keep swinging from bar to bar.

It’s not easy because every now and then you will miss the bar and fall – you will fail to achieve the goal. And failure is painful.

Those who succeed in life, however, pick themselves up, dust themselves off, figure out what went wrong, climb up the ladder and grab on to another bar.

When you pursue success, you will fail. You will miss the goal and it will hurt, emotionally and financially.

But those who eventually succeed, make a habit of learning from their failures and mistakes and get back up on the trapeze to try again. To succeed, you need to become a trapeze artist.